Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Fender Wayne Kramer Signature Stratocaster

Continuing our short series of blog posts about guitars emblazoned with National flags, of course we had to feature something with the Stars and Stripes. The Fender Wayne Kramer Signature Stratocaster has just recently been issued by Fender, and is a highly detailed replica of the Strat that Brother Wayne used to encourage us to Kick Out The Jams with the legendary MC5 back in the 1960s.

Kramer has always preferred hardtail Strats, and indeed that is the case here. Another feature that is unusual is that it has a Seymour Duncan '59 in the middle pickup position. How often do you see a humbucker in the middle position, flanked by two single coils? A friend of mine, years back, had a Strat set up like this and it sounded fantastic. I've often wondered why this set-up isn't more commonly seen.

And before anyone says it, yeah I realise it's not an accurate representation of the Stars and Stripes. It is very cool though. Even I covet this guitar. Part of me thinks I would have liked to have seen this finish without the relic effect being applied, although another part of me likes that too, it makes it look as if the guitar has survived 100s of MC5 gigs.